When insolvent, pack minimally, with a valise tough enough to be thrown onto a London pavement from a first- or second-floor window. Insist on hotel rooms no higher.

Power, time, gravity, love. The forces that really kick ass are all invisible.

As many truths as men. Occasionally, I glimpse a truer Truth, hiding in imperfect simulacrums of itself, but as I approach, it bestirs itself & moves deeper into the thorny swamp of dissent.

This world, he thinks, contains just one masterpiece, and that is itself.

Oh, diplomacy ... it mops up war's spillages; legitimizes its outcomes; gives the strong state the means to impose its will on a weaker one, while saving its fleets and battalions for weightier opponents.

Assured her I've never loved anyone except myself and have no intention of starting now.

Two people who are a little bit deluded in each other's favour. That's what love is, isn't it?